Desirée Holman

Sophont in Action

Desirée Holman

Sophont in Action

about the exhibition

Sophont in ActionDesirée Holman

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General Information

An unprecedented, large-scale, live cinema work, titled Sophont in Action, by California-based artist Desirée Holman is to be presented at Red Rocks Park.

Black Cube Artist Fellow, Desirée Holman, presents ‘Sophont in Action’ a site-specific performance that featured residents of the local community. This elaborate live performance built on Holman’s current body of work exploring the overlapping terrain of New Age mysticism, science fiction, and technology. The performance brings to life the full spectrum of related sub-cultures and their influence on the mainstream through investigations of the past, present, and future.

About the term ‘Sophont’: The term ‘sophont’ was coined by science fiction author Poul Anderson to describe intelligent beings with extraordinary emotional and reasoning capacity.

Viewers were guided through encounters with the following cast of characters:

GUIDES:

Identified by their gauzy smocks and flashing screens, ‘Sophont in Action’ Guides direct the audience along their journey.

TIME TRAVELERS:

These characters represent the elders who experienced the American ‘60s counterculture movement and embrace ideas of communalism and modern incarnations of Bohemianism. Inspiration for their sculptural headgear comes from an equal mixture of tinfoil hat and recent wearable technologies such as Google Glass. The animated helmets search for signals in an attempt to make contact with the beyond. Marked by their Psionics helmets and white linen frocks emblazoned with marbleized cosmic patterns, these psychic-fiction human hybrids have the ability to move backward and forward in time.

ECSTATIC DANCERS:

The Ecstatic Dancers believe that through focused free-formed dance they can effect positive change in the world. Informed by the culture of Conscious Dance, they practice the New Age ideologies of self-spirituality and individualism. These characters don calf-length unisex robes with designs based on Holman’s paintings of outer space and auras.

INDIGO CHILDREN:

Indigo children, according to a pseudoscientific New Age concept, are children who are believed to possess special, unusual, and sometimes supernatural traits or abilities – such as telepathy. These digital natives embody techno-advanced intelligence and are often described as those who will usher in the next stage in human evolution. Adorned with indigo dyed costumes and hands, these characters are believed to be highly empathic and to possess psychic abilities.

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Special Thanks

This exhibition was made possible through partnership with Denver's Arts & Venues.